[Post event thoughts of weekend from Showmasters]

 

Diamond passes git you through a que quicker? For any body? Why was we not told. Like some one had said, jump que on any one?

I missed a few people because I was not aware about people on other levels. They would have seen more people if they were all on one level

 

Because when Diamond Passes got you through a queue that was non Diamond that was an error, that's why you were not told.

 

Which begs the question, why didn't the crew know this wasn't the way it worked? I understood Diamond would only be priority for the guest it relates to, it was made clear on here so if I knew I don't understand how the crew managed to get things like this wrong when it's their job. Same with not collecting VTs. I still have all of mine, could easily have been reused. Not once did anyone ask to take it when I joined a queue. It's basic stuff. We know how it should work so why don't they?

 

It's things like this that really need tightening up and can cause problems, especially as the show gets bigger, with many more people to manage everyone really needs to know exactly how things work and what each pass/ticket allows. Basic, basic stuff.

[Post event thoughts of weekend from Showmasters]

If people just check the signs in the Olypmia , you should see all toilet signs I saw . No problem at all finding them . And the food was very easy to find to in there .

 

Inside yes, of course , we're talking about when queuing up outside. No mention was made on here about the availability of any of these facilities so why would I even think to ask? All it needed was a post on here to say this would be happening and just to ask someone on the day. Simple but since having this mention it's clear no-one I know had a clue about it.

[Post event thoughts of weekend from Showmasters]

I just hope more space does not mean more tickets sold as it will be the same predicament next year.

Probably will. More space = more capacity which is fine if everyone is spread out and filling the capacity of the different spaces but remember that the majority of people will be wanting to be in the same area i.e. the autograph areas and those were incredibly crowded while other areas had some space and much easier to get around.

[Post event thoughts of weekend from Showmasters]

 

 

And maybe I missed it but I saw no sign of any food, drink or toilet facilities when queuing up on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Maybe I just missed that but there was certainly nothing obvious when walking up from the station to join the queue.

I got there about 9am on Sunday and there was a guy going up and down the queue with a cool pack on his back selling water and Pepsi, I saw no food but there were definitely drinks being sold to the entry queue.

 

 

Ok, that's fair enough then. Must admit I didn't get there until 10 on Sunday but was there from about 10:30 on Friday and 6:30 on Saturday. Maybe I was just too distracted talking to my friend to notice.

[Post event thoughts of weekend from Showmasters]

Funny saying the Diamond passes worked well when clearly there were people with them who missed out on Robert Englunds autograph as he wasn't signing on Sunday due to someone somewhere not allowing for how long the makeup thing would take. Surely something that should have been known and factored in waaay in advance.

 

Also it would have been nice if the diamond passes for Sigourneys autograph had been split between saturday and sunday like they were supposed to have been. I complained to the pit boss about this as no-one was checking the numbers on the passes as I knew it was going to limit the number of normal VTs they would get through but was told that they were just letting anyone join and didn't care about the supposed day split. Same with photo sessions, no accounting for batch 1 or 2.

 

This meant my friend nearly missed out on getting the autograph despite having been queuing since before 6:30 and having a decent VT number as there was little time left once all diamonds had gone through although thankfully she did get it.

 

Honestly, if you're going to say you have a system in place to split things over two days please stick to it. There was no reason to change anything other than they couldn't be bothered and were just letting any pass number in. That was the general gist of what I was told. Not fare on those ordinary ticket holders who had VTs. Some would have stood a much better chance if only those diamonds that were supposed to get the auto on Saturday had been allowed to do so.

 

This is one of the big problems I have. We're told in advance that this and that will happen but on the day it often seems to go out the window and I don't think it's fair. Sure it didn't affect me much but if only half the Diamond passes had been allowed into the autograph queue on Saturday that would be a lot more VTs that would have stood a chance.

 

Same with VTs. I had none of mine for other guests taken off me. Every year we're told this won't happen again but it does, even when I had the numbers checked in the queue. Maybe that's one of the reasons a lot of people missed out, people were coming away and giving the uncollected ticket to a friend so low numbers were in constant circulation.

 

And please, please, please have barriers or tape cordoning off photo and auto queues, I'm sick and tired of people pushing past as if it's a thoroughfare or working their way to the front just to take a photo of the guest at the table and would actually indicate where the queue is and and separate it from the people just milling around.

 

All basic stuff and really needed with the number of people there.

 

And maybe I missed it but I saw no sign of any food, drink or toilet facilities when queuing up on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Maybe I just missed that but there was certainly nothing obvious when walking up from the station to join the queue.

[Diamond Pass : Is it a requirement that one person uses everything ?]

It's probably in the t&c's that you can't but as the passes only had a number on there's no way of knowing whose it is or who's using it. No way is there time or facility to check if the buyer is using it each time so make of that what you will.

[Aliens Talk Footage]

 

 

I know I keep going on about it, but it was such an important talk for me because I got to ask Neve a question and that really is a very rare opportunity.

 

That's the main reason why I don't like talks with interviewers asking most of the questions. Big guests with big queues at the desks mean you have little to no time to ask questions....the talks are the only real chance you get. THIS is what the talks should be for. NOT interviews.

 

I actually like the guided nature of those with a moderator/interviewer, whatever you want to call it. Tend to be more interesting and stops a lot of the stupid questions that some people like to ask such as "what's your favourite cheese" which seemed to be popular a while back. With limited time I want to hear the person talk about their career and projects. Just my opinion.

[Aliens Talk Footage]

I got a six minute chunk recorded on my camera, but won't be uploading it anywhere - it was because 2 of the 3 people I was with were held up getting to the start of the talk, so I recorded it for them to see what they missed. They came in, I stopped recording. It didn't include the Carrie 'scream' or Siggy confirming that Alien 5 was 100% on... or Bill Paxton getting a bit embarassed when admitting playing with Carrie during filming down-time...

Sorry but that's no excuse and you still shouldn't have done it. If you feel you can break the rules, why should anyone else follow them? That's how it starts.

[Do you allow criticism or ...]

And I know we will get the usual we're fans too, always doing our best rhetoric but no, it's a business and a big one now and has to be treated as such. Things have moved on from the old days.

[Do you allow criticism or ...]

The weekend was brilliant and for me, the positives FAR outweigh any negatives and those negatives were very minor and not worth the time of day. It was a great job by Showmasters and everyone involved.

I'm sorry but that's complete rubbish. Yes I'm happy with what I came away with but the effort of getting that was stressful and at times horrendous. Access to almost anywhere was abysmal. Queueing around photo areas was woeful, no where near enough space. To me it really felt like they weren't up to running a show of this size and I only got through it being a veteran and knowing how things should work. Having photo areas spread all over the place was ridiculous, even guests couldn't get to shoots on time. Ridiculous situation. The fact that diamond passes missed out on guaranteed Robert Englund autos is disgusting. It must have been known how long the makeup would take. And I know for a fact crew only found out about that by looking on the forum after people went up to them for refunds. That's not fair on anyone.

 

And yes, I don't suppose that will be liked but there needs to be some serious changes made as things get bigger. Other than things get bigger I've seen little organisation change since first one I went to in 2003 and it's becoming not fit for purpose.

[Do you allow criticism or ...]

But that won't address individual concerns and issues. The events are getting so big and so frequent It's getting to the point though where SM really need some dedicated people to respond to individuals on a continuous basis. The impression regularly implied tho, as the OP indicates is that criticism is hidden and not welcome. Not saying that's true but it's the impression many take away and knowing people who have been banned for it, I find myself sitting on a precarious edge sometimes and not saying things I'd sometimes like to for fear of the same.

[Do you allow criticism or ...]

Criticism is a delicate issue here. I agree that many people have been nothing but fair but threads do get removed/hidden although we are told they are still looked at and people have been banned for asking fair questions, and some not so fair admittedly.

 

It would be nice to see some more positive feedback and acknowledgement of some of the issues as when they just disappear people feel they are being ignored and this is not good customer service in my view.

 

But it's Showmasters forum and they can police it how they see fit.

[Should more guests have a Diamond Pass option?]

Sounds like the original poster got the experience most people get at these things. You're not there to hang out with them but at the same time, have something interesting to say/ask and you'll often get a better encounter. Doesn't mean talk for 10mins but as long as I feel I've been acknowledged and interacted with the guest I'm very happy. Sure, doesn't always happen but what the OP describes seems pretty normal, especially for the more popular guests.

 

Expectations too high maybe?

[Anyone met Sigourney Weaver yet?]

Dent_1, I was at the SW talk when you asked her about the film. I am pleased you did as it is my fave film of hers and was trying to ask a question myself but never got to. I spoke to her myself at the signing briefly about the film. So thank you for getting that question in. At the signing I wanted to get my main item signed which was my Bafta book of portraits and as I presented it to her she said oh a Tony book, then looked embarrassed at her mistake. A classy lady that had time for everyone and in my opinion the best guest I have met at the SM events.

 

Agree, good question. Was a bit "Aliens" heavy, could have covered a bit more ground. Would have been nice to have got her thoughts on doing voice work for example like in Wall-E and even in Paul she's mostly a voice. I was trying to ask about that but didn't get picked. Still great to listen to her talk though, over far too soon :)

 

And like others have said the autograph session felt so relaxed it was amazing. Still can't quite believe this all happened

 

For those who haven't seen the photo thread I think this is my favourite photo I took at her solo panel :)

 

[Thrown out of gold room]

What a stupid location to put it then if this was going to be an issue. Totally unreasonable and ridiculous to have it somewhere where it couldn't be used for part of the time. Don't understand why you'd ever do that.

[ALIENS TALK - How was it?]

They specifically said NO VIDEOS!But someone in front of me was pretty much videoing the entire thing on their phone!

 

 

Problem is they don't have people looking out for this kind of thing but also why didn't you say anything? Clearly you agree with the rules, as do I but if it's not pointed out how will it stop?

[Christopher Lloyd]

They couldn't have known how slowly and meticulously Chris would be signing over the 3 days. (It's a wonderful auto!)

 

Beg to differ. He's not a young man and last time he was at LFCC he was also very slow and meticulous with signing and the queues were huge all weekend. I had a gold pass back then and even with that had a long wait and didn't get him until the last day. So it wouldn't have been unknown that he would not be fast.

 

Lovely man though, thrilled I met him back then.

[Photo thread]

Wow, Rockstar6662. Great photos, that Sigourney one is lovely. Great moment you captured.

 

Thank you. The Diamond pass got me a great seat and I'm lucky to have a great camera. There's more in my gallery but that's definitely a favourite.

[Photo thread]

Here are mine https://picasaweb.google.com/howard.crowe/LondonFilmComicCon2015

 

Samples: Sigourney Weaver / Tim Russ / Garrett Wang / Nicole de Boer

 

 

[guest day cancellation - Carice Van Houten]

Sorry to hear it was due to illness. Surprised the conditions didn't affect more really. I missed out on a photoshoot today but did get her autograph towards the end of Saturday and thought she didn't seem too well although she did like that I had her CD cover to get signed and said she hoped to do another. Hope she's better soon and good on her to do as much as she did then.

[LFCC Entrances and Floor Plan]

Access between the different floors was woefully inadequate. Even to the point of stairs being blocked by venue staff as they were full, huge queues for lifts and stairs, especially up to level 3. The temporary stairs put in were only deemed capable for people going in one direction (up) and even guests were late for photoshoots because they couldn't get to the right area in time. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

Luckily I was able to get what I needed, just 2 autos and 3 photos but even that was stressful and felt like far more effort than even last year because of the issues of just getting around.

[Diamond Pass complaint]

 

It was never possible for Diamonds to get her photo today, only her auto which I got and she was lovely. Photos will be Saturday for Batch 1 passes and Sunday for Batch 2. This was explained on the forum.

I have just received confirmation.

 

The plan was always as Rockstar posted. So the Diamond Pass Holders today were told 'no' at Carrie's shoot because of that.

 

I apologize that this info does not have reached everyone. It may even have been wrong on here for a bit until it got clarified. Again my apologies.

 

Unless I missed something I thought it had always been the way I described. That's what I had seen you post on the forum anyway.

[Diamond Pass complaint]

I had to queue up behind non diamond pass, non gold pass holders today for her autograph. I may have misunderstood the Diamond Pass perks for Carrie Henn but I thought we were meant to get priority as well. The showmasters steward told me that it was only with Sigourney and I'd have to queue up behind everyone else for anything with Carrie Henn.

 

Anyway I did and she was lovely! Despite spelling my name wrong on my poster and then apologising a million times.

The diamond pass for Carrie was only ever to allow you to join her queue at any time, not be jumped to the front. Again, all this was clearly explained on the forum in advance.

[Tickets - iPhone Passbook]

I used the tickets stored in Passbook today, no problems. Scanned easily. Keeping my phone battery topped up so I could use it was another issue mind.

[Diamond Pass complaint]

It was never possible for Diamonds to get her photo today, only her auto which I got and she was lovely. Photos will be Saturday for Batch 1 passes and Sunday for Batch 2. This was explained on the forum.